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Characters

From right to left:Ostrom - A Deinonychus whose main function is to explain things and otherwise talk to the audience (breaking the fourth wall). I guess he can be counted as the most normal character in the whole comic as he is frequently dismayed by the actions of other characters. In contrast to the common portrayal of dromaeosaurids as unstoppable killing machines, Ostrom is rather hapless when it comes to hunting.

Savape - This Archaeopteryx likes to kill things. That's all. Oh, and stand on Ostrom's head. She's not half bad at those things, either. As I explained before on the blog, her name should be pronounced "suh-vay-pee" and was formed by sticking vowels between SVP, which stands for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Zahavi - A Jinfengopteryx who does weird things like summon objects from hammerspace, levitate, and instantly fossilize himself. He is the only main character without a particularly meaningful name, which is probably appropriate for an eccentric like him. He is named after the biologist Amotz Zahavi, for no specific reason besides the fact that I had been reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins while I came up with the concept for this comic. I'm not certain how the original Zahavi is supposed to be pronounced, but my character's name should be "zuh-hay-vee".

Skull - Skull is a cast of the skull of Tsaagan on display in the Acme Museum. He's supposedly quite knowledgeable and intelligent. (Never mind his lack of an actual brain.) He wants to take over the museum, making maniraptors the star attractions. The sign under his display stand can be opened to reveal his hammerspace. While he can't move from place to place (unless he really needs to), he can swivel on his axis in order to talk to those around him.

Dinky - Dinky is a house sparrow who flew into the museum by mistake and has failed to get out ever since. Skull considers him "mindless". Nonetheless, Skull still believes he's useful to have around, mainly because he more or less compensates for Skull's lack of mobility. In reality, he is more naïve and klutzy than stupid, and more often than not he isn't the sole blame for the failure of Skull's plans.

Remex - The paleontologically-correct Caudipteryx. He always stays up to date on paleo news (at least insofar as I do) and knows the museum inside and out. While he finds constantly having to correct Ebeff irksome, it's useful to have someone with big claws around.

Ebeff - While this Therizinosaurus tries to stay on top of dinosaur news, he's often misled by studies that are out of date or flat wrong. For example, he hangs around Remex for the reason that they're both "enigmosaurs". His name, as some have noticed, is derived from EBFF (Elongated Broad Filamentous Feather), which is a bristly integument that therizinosaurs appear to have had.

Yes, for most part. (Dinky is a real animal.) They can flip between inanimate and animate forms at will (hence their occasional talk about "going dormant"), but are usually seen in the comic under the latter form for likely obvious reasons, under which they simulate the physiology of (very cartoony) actual organisms.